Thursday, May 17, 2007

Playin’ in The Sandbox: Street Fighter Previews Ryu Mini-Review

Why mini? Because it's 10 after midnight as I type this.

A couple years ago, I made a bonehead move. See, SOTA Toys had just launched it's Street Fighter action figure line. It flew somewhat under the radar at first, but soon word spread in the collector community, and hardcore and casual SF fans a like picked up the line.

Me, being the tight fisted bastard I am, knew this one June day, when I walked into Hot Topic, and spotted a lone Ryu figure in his white Gi. Sure he looked cool, but I only had 30 bucks on me, and he was 14.99. "I'll pick him up later." I said to myself. WRONG. So fucking wrong. He was gone the next day, and I've lamented that decision ever since. Especially since that figure now fetches 40 bucks on the secondary market.

Since then I've gone a long, picking up certain figures from each subsequent wave, knowing there's a huge gap in my collection. Ah, but SOTA bailed me out. Last year they announced they were going to reboot if you wheel, the SF line, in a new scale, and new body type. The first three figures would be released under the "Previews" banner, consisting of Ken, Akuma, and you guessed it, Ryu.

During a jaunt at Sam Goody today, I spotted these figures, and thanking God for second chances, picked up Ryu.

Now this is normally the part where I'd show you the packaging, but I have to admit, I popped him open in the parking lot, and ditched the box somewhere. Basically it's just a large white box, with pictures of the figure on it, and some kanji written on the front, and the word "Previews" prominently featured. You'll know when you see it, trust me.

Anyway, on to the figure itself:

As you can see, Ryu is fairly impressive, and the scanner doesn't do him justice. He has about 33 points of articulation, so you'll get him in pretty much any pose you want. His Gi is made of a soft vinyl plastic, as is his head band.

He comes with two hands, closed fists, and open "Shoryuken" palms. He also has a clear base, which can be used to pose him doing the hurricane kick.

Now, while I love this figure, I feel kind of cheated. First off, the original figure came with an extra head, and a duffel bag, in addition to the hands. Secondly, the price. Ryu rang up at 19.29, while the other SF figures generally run from 13 to 15 bucks at retail. I almost feel as if I paid extra for the packaging. Also, if you do have the older figures, Ryu is slightly out of scale, so be warned.

That being said, it's still an oustanding figure, and not a purchase I regret. For anyone that collected the old line, or for anyone that was looking for a new jumping on point to start collecting them, you can't go wrong here.